Life in Moo Town
Why Candles are a Bad Analogy for Souls
When you ask a chabadnik how people get their souls they tend to answer that a piece of your parent's soul splits off and becomes yours. If you ask them why each generation doesn't have less of a soul if the souls keep dividing this way their response is that souls are like candles. Just as a candle can light another candle without being diminished a soul can create another without losing any of itself. While this is a beautiful midrash, it is a terrible analogy. The reason candle flames can be passed without extinguishing the original fire is that a new fuel source is provided. The original flame is just a catalyst for a combustion reaction to occur in the new candle. Souls presumably do not get more fuel when they generate new souls. In fact since a soul isn't a physical entity there isn't even any fuel it could interact with in our world. I'm not claiming this is proof souls don't exist by the way (although I doubt they do), I'm merely asserting that emotional appeals to beautiful analogies shouldn't convince people of anything in metaphysical debates. Further, candles actually are slightly diminished when they light new fires in that they lose some energy in the heat transfer. The original candle must also expend more of it's own fuel in order to generate the energy to transfer to the new candle.
Rather than moving on from metaphysics to epistemology as would be logical, I think today I'll ponder something else: exceptionality.
What does it take to be exceptional nowadays? How extraordinary does a person have to be to truly stand out as unique? It's hard to say. Certainly in athletics there is very little difference physically between the good and the best. Same goes for mental arenas. Is the Nobel prize runner up really any less intelligent than the winner? Usually not.
It seems that what sets the best apart from the merely good is attitude. It takes a combination of capacity for excellence and the drive to achieve it in order to leave one's mark on the world. It isn't enough just to have the most talent, one must constantly struggle tooth and claw towards a goal for that talent to be recognized.
In fact, even those who aren't the smartest or most fit can surpass their competition if they have a better work ethic and will to succeed. That in mind, back to studying.
The plangent tolling of the final bell, and then only silence. Pretty dark, but what the hell, it's 1AM and finals week.
There has to be absolute metaphysical truth doesn't there? Either a blossom is red or it isn't. It's just wrong to think it's red for some people and not for others right? But what about the color blind? Perhaps it is still red for them too, they are just wrong in their perception of the color. Or perhaps it isn't red at all and we're all wrong. Even if we're all wrong there could still be a truth of the matter. The fact that none of us would be privy to that truth is irrelevant. And what about love? Either true love exists or it doesn't. It's ridiculous to say it only exists for this or that culture. True love must be an absolute. Of course there is no necessity for it to absolutely exist, it could absolutely fail to. In any case it doesn't seem that it should be in a gray area. Shouldn't true love, if it exists, shine out in blinding examples to the whole world, removing any doubt that it may be somewhere, slinking in phantom alleys? If so, the very fact that there can be doubt of true love would seem to indicate that it is only a myth. No true love. How sad. Quite pessimistic really. Must be bed time. Besides, maybe love does keep to more discreet paths...
Floating in limbo.
It's finals week. But I have no finals until Wednesday. And my grades are all pretty much determined anyway. All my law school apps are done and mailed. I'm in the doldrums of lethargy. Nothing is urgent enough to make me spring into action. Future deadlines are a mere whisp of vapor in the distance, not yet materialized into thunderheads.
I guess I should be happy it's all over but something is still missing. I can't quite put my finger on it. Oh well. Such is life I suppose. So hard to find perfect moments. So much harder to find the right people to share them with.
Spent an hour this morning giving "constructive criticism" to the director of DHC. She seemed fairly receptive to my suggestions so maybe the program will improve next year. I'm not holding my breath though. I tried riding my bike since I couldn't get a ride to Kerr Hall but it still hurts a lot. Since it started raining I think I'll just use the gimp mobile for the rest of the day. This is one of the least exciting postings ever. Sadness. Maybe next one will be more interesting.
I just dropped the last pieces of my application to Stanford in the mail. Phew, glad that's over. Won't hear for another six weeks if they even received my app though. I might get a decision by early March if I'm lucky. 11 schools down, just two left to go. If I'm adventurous (or foolhardy) I might finish UCLA and Boalt's applications tonight. It would be so nice just to be done. But Berkeley weights the personal statement heavily and will accept up to four pages...the statement I have is only 2. Should I write a longer essay? And what about UCLA? They'll take up to 3 pages. We'll see what happens.
On a completely other topic, I made a shiva call today. It's not my first time but I've never done it for someone my own age who's lost an immediate relative before. I dunno why I always get so choked up at these things, it's not like I even know the person who died. I feel it more making shiva calls than I did at my own relatives funerals. I guess it's because I feel more for the bereaved than the deceased. Kind of odd but I guess it works. The dead have no worries and feel no pain, it's the living we should be concerned for. I wonder if that relates at all to the conflict in Israel...If people were more concerned about improving the lives of the living than avenging the dead or hanging on to some memory of traditional properties, maybe there would be peace. It's so hard to be optimistic anymore. I guess I'm just getting worn out. My idealism will come back with a few nights of sleep and some stress relief.
Thought of the day: Injury and illness come and go, the fruits of good deeds last forever.
